Urban Nature, Public Space and Walkable Urban Form for Climate Resilience, Planning and Design

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites interdisciplinary research exploring the interplay between walkability, green infrastructure, urban forms, public space, and climate resilience, aiming to provide evidence and strategies showing how integrated green, pedestrian, and public space networks can enhance connectivity, ecological performance, liveability, and climate adaptation in urban areas. We seek conceptual, methodological, and practical contributions addressing sustainable urban form, planning policies, urban forestry, and the revitalisation of existing urban fabrics.

Walkable environments, well-designed public spaces, reforestation initiatives, and other nature-based solutions have become central to contemporary debates on sustainable spatial development. The integration of green infrastructure with pedestrian- and public space-friendly urban design offers an effective means of addressing pressing challenges related to climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, regeneration, and the liveability of cities. Walkability, green systems, and resilient public spaces function as mutually reinforcing frameworks that can improve accessibility, health, and environmental quality while promoting more cohesive and climate-adaptive urban structures.

This Special Issue of Land seeks to advance cross-disciplinary insight into how spatial planning, urban design, urban morphology, and nature-based solutions can contribute to the creation of walkable, ecologically connected, and climate-resilient urban environments. We encourage contributions that explore the relationships between spatial form, mobility networks, green infrastructure, and public spaces, and that propose strategies for revitalising and reconnecting fragmented urban fabrics. By combining urban morphology with nature-based, pedestrian-oriented, and reforestation approaches, the aim is to foster understanding of how spatial patterns and design decisions can enhance urban sustainability and human well-being.

We welcome original research papers, critical reviews, conceptual studies, and case-based analyses addressing the following or related topics:

• Spatial structure and morphological dimensions of green, walkable, and public space networks in cities; 
• Urban design and planning strategies linking green infrastructure, public space, reforestation, and pedestrian mobility;
• Indicators and spatial metrics for assessing walkability, connectivity, ecological performance, and climate resilience;
• Revitalisation and regeneration of underused or obsolete urban structures through integrated nature-based, reforestation, and walkability approaches;
• Policy, governance, and planning frameworks supporting cohesive, sustainable, and climate-resilient urban networks;
• GIS, spatial network, and remote sensing methods for analysing interactions of green infrastructure systems, urban form, and public spaces;
• Relationships between green infrastructure, public health, climate resilience, and social interaction in urban environments;
• Comparative and cross-regional perspectives on adaptive, nature-based, and regenerative urban transformation.

By bringing together contributions from the fields of urban design, planning, geography, landscape architecture, and environmental studies, this Special Issue aims to strengthen the conceptual, methodological, and practical foundations of land-based sustainability research. It seeks to highlight how green infrastructure, public space, urban forestry, and walkable urban forms can inform the integrated transformation of cities towards climate resilience, social inclusivity, and spatial coherence.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Malgorzata Hanzl
Dr. Alessandro Camiz
Dr. Paul Osmond
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• walkability
• green infrastructure
• public space
• urban morphology
• urban reforestation
• sustainable urban design
• urban revitalisation
• urban form
• spatial planning
• connectivity
• nature-based solutions
• climate resilience
• liveability